OSTI, based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, fulfills agency-wide statutory responsibilities to collect, preserve, and disseminate scientific and technical information emanating from DOE research and development activities. The OSTI mission is to advance science and sustain technological creativity by making R&D findings available and useful to DOE researchers and the public.

“OSTI most recently led the development of the Department’s plan to provide public access to scholarly publications and maintains a massive collection of DOE R&D results going back to the Manhattan Project,” said Dr. Jeffrey Salmon, Deputy Director of the Office of Science for Resource Management, in announcing Hitson’s appointment. “Brian has led the implementation of the DOE public access plan for scholarly publications, the first such plan to have been approved by the White House, and he personally forged cooperative working relationships on public access with federal research agencies, the publishing community, and other key stakeholders.”

Mr. Hitson joined OSTI in 1988 and led a range of programmatic and administrative activities, including strategic planning, budget formulation and execution, information product development, and cost-reimbursable project management. Appointed Associate Director for Administration and Information Services in 1999, he developed and implemented a number of strategic initiatives and managed line responsibilities in international information exchange programs, administrative and financial management, classified and sensitive information programs, and the digitization and preservation of a 1.2 million scientific document repository. He has been serving as Acting Director of OSTI since January 2014.

Mr. Hitson has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and a Master's in Business Administration, both from the University of Tennessee, and is a 2011 graduate of the Federal Executive Institute's Leadership for a Democratic Society program. He and his wife Mary Helen have two daughters and reside in Clinton, Tennessee.

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

The U.S. Department of Energy is introducing new measures to increase access to scholarly publications and digital data resulting from Department-funded research.

The Energy Department has launched the Public Access Gateway for Energy and Science –PAGES – a web-based portal that will provide free public access to accepted peer-reviewed manuscripts or published scientific journal articles within 12 months of publication.

“Increasing access to the results of research funded by the Department of Energy will enable researchers and entrepreneurs to capitalize on our substantial research and development investments,” said Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. “These new policies set the stage for increased innovation, commercial opportunities, and accelerated scientific breakthroughs.”

As it grows in content, PAGES will include access to DOE-funded authors’ accepted manuscripts hosted primarily by the Energy Department’s National Labs and grantee institutions, in addition to the public access offerings of publishers. For publisher-hosted content, the Department is collaborating with the publisher consortium CHORUS -- the Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States.

PAGES contains an initial collection of accepted manuscripts and journal articles as a demonstration of its functionality and eventual expanded content. Additional metadata and links to articles and accepted manuscripts will be added as they are submitted, with anticipated growth of 20,000 to 30,000 articles and manuscripts annually.

New Look Reflects Focus on Serving DOE R&D Interests

The website of the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) has a new look.

OSTI has re-designed its home page to reflect a streamlined focus on its core mission: to collect, preserve and disseminate scientific and technical information (STI) emanating from DOE research and development (R&D) activities.

The refreshed OSTI home page makes it easier for visitors to find DOE STI as well as other related science resources from across the federal government and around the world. OSTI works to extend the reach and impact of DOE research results and to bring the world’s research to DOE.

Prominently positioned at the top of the new home page is a search box for DOE R&D results that provides one-step access to OSTI’s flagship DOE STI product, SciTech Connect.

The home page also includes a carousel of OSTI’s streamlined product portfolio, slides highlighting OSTI news and blogs, and the OSTI Catalogue of Collections, which lists and describes OSTI’s STI offerings.

Featured in the carousel are links to OSTI’s principal DOE STI resources, including SciTech Connect, DOE Data Explorer, ScienceCinema, DOepatents, E-Print Network and DOE R&D Accomplishments. The carousel also provides ready access to OSTI’s three federated search products: the National Library of EnergyBeta, Science.gov and WorldWideScience.org.

The re-designed home page also includes an expandable footer that highlights the DOE Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP). Central to OSTI’s operations, STIP is an OSTI-led collaboration of STI managers and technical information officers from across the DOE complex responsible for identifying, collecting, preserving and making accessible the results of DOE-funded R&D. The footer also includes a handy index of all OSTI’s science resources and information about OSTI.

OSTI re-designed its home page to make it easier for users to seek and find DOE STI. Please let us know what you think: Feedback/Contact US.

In January 1999, a database of electronic documents containing U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/predecessor accomplishments was created. It was launched with the goal of drawing visible recognition to outcomes of past DOE/predecessor research
and development that:

have had
significant economic impact,

have improved
people's lives, or

have been widely
recognized as remarkable advances in science.

The first two DOE R&D Accomplishments Feature pages
were posted in February 2000. The subjects were the 1958 video game created by
a Brookhaven scientist and the Information Superhighway reflecting Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory's contribution to the Internet. Since then
the DOE R&D Accomplishments website has posted Feature pages about 91 Nobel
Laureates and some recent Enrico Fermi Award winners.

DOE R&D Accomplishments also provides interesting insights and
detailed information about Nobel Laureates that range from former DOE Secretary
Steven Chu to Enrico Fermi and Saul Perlmutter. In addition to
scientists, important key topics such as Thin-Film Lithium Batteries, Cancer
Therapy and Climate Change have also been highlighted. Another helpful segment
on the website is called "Snapshots." This is where you can find
articles and related documents on subjects such as Neutrinos; Life: Babies and
Archea; and WWII the Manhattan Project.

DOE R&D Accomplishments is a unique website and database in the OSTI collection. For over 14 years, special Feature pages have been methodically researched and useful information collected on scientists, discoveries, and historical events to include in this searchable resource. It is a rich source of DOE trivia unto itself. The outcomes featured have had significant economic impact, have improved people’s lives, or have been widely recognized as a remarkable advance in science. The 100th Feature Page highlights 2004 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics, David Gross. Gross joins other featured DOE Nobel Laureates such as Glenn Seaborg, E. O. Lawrence, Melvin Calvin and Saul Perlmutter on this distinguished list. Learn more about the 100th Celebration for DOE R&D Accomplishments Feature Pages at http://t.osti.gov/i0s.

DDE still provides the same access to publicly available DOE-sponsored data and other non-text information, with records to great collections at DOE's national laboratories, program offices, and user facilities. The database itself has been retooled with new, underlying software, new functionalities, and more content. DDE has been expanded to include records identifying individual datasets/datastreams submitted to OSTI from DOE Data Centers and other sites. Information about OSTI’s Data ID Service is now part of the website.

Search functionality has been improved. Date range searching has been added for datasets with publication dates; as well as a relevance sort; and a Boolean search has been made available from the Advanced Search page. Browse DDE content by title, subject category, sponsor/funding organization, other related organization and type. Types are wide-ranging, encompassing: animations/simulations; figures/data plots; genome/genetics data; interactive data maps; multimedia; numeric data; specialized mix; and still images/photographs.

Science.gov, known for its groundbreaking search and retrieval of U.S. government science information, was launched in December 2002. Science.gov offers more than 200 million pages of federally funded science information and data from the Department of Energy (DOE) and the 14 other federal agencies in the Science.gov Alliance. As part of its 10th anniversary observance, the Science.gov Alliance is posting science trivia provided by the individual agencies each Tuesday and Thursday morning. Follow @Sciencegov to get the trivia questions via Twitter or visit http://www.science.gov/trivia to read all the trivia questions and answers to-date. Science.gov is hosted by the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information.

The latest question: What was discovered in 1998 by Department of Energy and NASA scientists that completely changed how we view the universe?

Citations to more than 2,400 journal articles by researchers at the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science's suite of Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) are now available on the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) SciTech Connect database (go directly to the EFRC citations that have been added to SciTech Connect). Included are citations to 43 EFRC videos (read more).

March 2013 is the 65th anniversary of the first in a series of over 20 publications that reflect the exploration of the path of carbon in photosynthesis, the process by which plants capture energy from the sun. Spanning decades, this exploration eventually led to Department of Energy (DOE) research into solar energy. The trailblazer who led this exploration was Melvin Calvin, a chemist at the University of California Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, now Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (read more at the DOE R&D Accomplishments Blog).

For a sample of what you can find in SciTech Connect, try these smart grid results. Then test drive the SciTech Connect search on your other science terms of interest. A basic search is available which includes a semantic search; an advanced search will help you limit your search to a particular field. In SciTech Connect, there are over 2.5 million citations, including citations to 1.4 million journal articles, 364,000 of which have digital object identifiers (DOIs) linking to full-text articles on publishers' websites. SciTech Connect also has over 313,000 full-text DOE sponsored STI reports; most of these are post-1991, but close to 85,000 of the reports were published prior to 1990. SciTech Connect is a consolidation of Information Bridge and Energy Citations Database, incorporating all the R&D info from these two products into one search interface.

OSTI honors Nobel Laureate, Donald Glaser, who "died in his sleep Thursday morning, Feb. 28, at his home in Berkeley. Glaser, a professor emeritus of physics and of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the bubble chamber, a device that allowed scientists to track the paths of electrons, protons and other elementary particles after collisions, which led the discovery of whole families of new particles." http://t.osti.gov/iKV

Imagine observing the universe in its early stages, about 380,000 years after birth. Using NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, launched in 1989, John C. Mather and George F. Smoot did just that, and eventually helped cement the Big Bang theory of the universe and launched a broader understanding of the origin of giant clusters of galaxies. For their work they shared the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics. Find related documents and resources with additional information on both Mather and Smooth at the OSTI DOE R&D Accomplishments website. DOE R&D Accomplishments is a central forum for information about significant outcomes of past DOE R&D widely recognized as remarkable advancements in science.

OSTI recently launched SciTech Connect, a new portal to free, publicly available DOE research and development (R&D) results. SciTech Connect incorporates the contents of two of the most popular core DOE collections and employs an innovative semantic search tool enabling scientists, researchers and the scientifically attentive public to retrieve more relevant information. OSTI will gradually phase out its current DOE Information Bridge and Energy Citations products and replace them with the improved search interface of SciTech Connect. Consolidated in SciTech Connect, DOE Information Bridge and Energy Citations accounted for approximately half of the 298 million transactions OSTI handled in 2012. OSTI will work to ensure a smooth transition for patrons as it consolidates these two web-based services into SciTech Connect (read more about the transition details and scope of the new product).

The Department of Energy (DOE) Technology Transfer website has a new search feature that for the first time allows searching of technology transfer information across the DOE national laboratories.

The new tool enables users to search all of DOE's technology transfer information, including inventions, patents and other applied research, available from DOE's national laboratories in real time. Using web-crawling technology, the search capability allows users to enter a single query for a technology transfer term; the search feature returns a consolidated, relevance-ranked list of information from across the DOE complex. Users do not need to know the national laboratory or researcher associated with a search term to find the information they need (read more).

Research performed at Argonne National Laboratory supported the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Brian K. Kobilka. Intense X-rays produced by Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source helped enable the first discovery of an important class of chemical receptors that allow cells to receive signals from their environment (see Office of Science feature.) Research at Department of Energy Laboratories has been recognized with 4 Chemistry and 3 Physics Nobel Prizes in the past decade (see DOE news release). Kobilka, Professor of Medicine and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University School of Medicine, shared the prize with Robert J. Lefkowitz, Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University Medical Center. Read more about Kobilka at the OSTI DOE R&D Accomplishments website and find a roster of Nobel Laureates associated with DOE. DOE R&D Accomplishments is a central forum for information about significant outcomes of past DOE R&D widely recognized as remarkable advancements in science.

Science.gov now includes multimedia content, an updated interface with enhanced navigation, and a Spanish version of the site, Ciencia.Science.gov.

For the first time, R&D video from the DOE ScienceCinema is available as well as from MedlinePLUS, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Images from the Library of Congress have been added to the image search which is now integrated under a new multimedia tab on the results page. Search enhancements include visual representations of topical information in an easy-to-use touch and dial format (for more information, see the OSTI Announcement)."

Since we first launched Science.gov in 2002, we have continually improved it to make it even more useful to citizens interested in finding research and development results from across the U.S. government," said OSTI Director Walter Warnick. "Now Science.gov contains multimedia content and is accessible to the Spanish-speaking public. We are pleased with these developments and we fully intend to continue enhancing the value and utility of Science.gov." OSTI, within the DOE Office of Science, was instrumental in developing Science.gov and hosts the web portal.

The Science.gov Alliance will highlight these and other achievements in its 10th Anniversary celebration in December (more information).

A blog from the American Printing House for the Blind gives an assessment of WorldWideScience.org: "In terms that the rest of us can understand, this website is a way for researchers, scientists, students, and science enthusiasts to search worldwide science databases all at once. Instead of traipsing the World Wide Web, going through multiple search engines, and spending way too much time looking for one thing, this website allows you to search only once to find what you are looking for. Instead of getting a search result for what John Doe thinks of astronomy, this website will only give you the most accurate, legitimate results. In addition, a traditional search engine could not find many of these results." Read more at theFred's Head blog.

In its "Trailblazers of North American Research" edition, International Innovation explores a spectrum of groundbreaking research and development activities, including those at the nation's largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences – the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. In an exclusive interview, Office of Science Director William F. Brinkman offers insights on achieving greater energy security, maintaining the balance between applied and discovery-based research, and the importance of communication among scientific communities. Dr. Brinkman provides a glimpse into the Department's initiatives in particle physics, bioenergy, and more. When asked about the "societal benefits" of the Office of Science work, he quotes Vannevar Bush, in effect the nation's first science advisor, on the importance of science to U.S. prosperity, and states, "As a mainstay of federal science funding, we have been a major contributor to underwriting the prosperity and security of the nation over the past 60 years. Examples include superconducting magnet technology, radioisotopes, battery materials, semiconductor processing, and many others."

Whether by finding ways to ensure research data are readily accessible online or by partnering with companies such as Microsoft to audio index scientific videos, OSTI's Brian Hitson is keen for his organization to collaborate on innovations across the international science information arena. Hitson, OSTI Associate Director and Chair of the International Council on Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) Technical Activities Coordinating Committee (TACC), was recently interviewed for International Innovation: North America, June 2012 (Research Media, UK, pp106-107). Hitson noted in the interview that public-private and multilateral collaborations allow entities such as OSTI to realize "very tangible outcomes that would either not have been feasible, or would have been much more expensive for individual members to pursue independently." The TACC is currently exploring projects in information trust and authority, data equivalence, and alternatives to traditional usage and value metrics, all of which provide benefit to individual members such as OSTI. OSTI is charged with providing broad access to the research and development activities of the U.S. Department of Energy and its Office of Science, the largest funder of research in the physical sciences in the U.S. Government. Through partnerships facilitated by the ICSTI network, OSTI brings the world's R&D to DOE researchers and makes sure DOE R&D results are shared globally. ICSTI is the platform under which WorldWideScience.org - the global science search engine - was developed. OSTI is the operating agent for WorldWideScience.org.

Arthur H. Compton discovered that light cannot be explained simply as a wave phenomenon, but also must be considered as a stream of particles. His confirmation of the dual nature of electromagnetic radiation earned Compton a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927. Read more about Compton and get resources with additional information at the OSTI DOE R&D Accomplishments website. DOE R&D Accomplishments is a central forum for information about significant outcomes of past DOE R&D widely recognized as remarkable advancements in science.

DOE's RTG is doing it again. The Department's Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) is providing continuous power to the Mars rover Curiosity. The Multi-Mission RTG was constructed, assembled and tested by the Department and the Idaho, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories. The RTG has supported many space missions, including the Apollo missions to the Moon, the Viking missions to Mars, and the Pioneer, Voyager, Ulysses, Galileo and Cassini missions to the outer solar system. For more information, see OSTI's DOE R&D Accomplishments website, central forum for information about significant outcomes of past DOE R&D widely recognized as remarkable advancements in science.

Subscribe to the OSTI.gov Newsletter and stay-up-to-date on the latest in OSTI news. Learn about the role that scientific and technical information plays in the DOE scientific integrity arena, find a great mobile science information app, discover the latest nanotechnology research in the DOE collections, and more. Comments and Questions are welcome.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) brightens the holidays for a number of area school children. Since the early 1990s, staff at OSTI have sponsored an Angel Tree Program for students from Norwood Elementary School. This year, each child in the program had three Angels on the OSTI tree. The wrapped gifts were collected and delivered to the Oliver Springs Angel Tree Ministry which distributes the gifts to the children before the winter break. Earlier in December, OSTI collected food items to be distributed to children for their weekend meals. This long-standing tradition is one way OSTI participates in the local community. OSTI, within the DOE Office of Science and located at 1 Science.gov Way in Oak Ridge, advances science and sustains technological creativity by making R&D findings available and useable to DOE researchers and to the public.

Stanford's list of Nobel Laureates is long and distinguished, as is its research relationship with the U.S. Department of Energy. Read about Stanford's research and resource connections to DOE at the OSTI .EDUconnections website. .EDUconnections features U.S. community colleges and universities committed to supporting and advancing DOE scientific research programs. For more institutions in the .EDUconnections spotlight, visit the archive page.

Community Colleges across the country are revving up to educate tomorrow's scientific and technical workforce, and Pellissippi State Community College is no exception. Not only is the college in East Tennessee expanding the teaching of technology, the use of technology in instruction, and the transfer of technology to local business and industry, it?s also charging engines in a more literal sense. Through support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Pellissippi State is demonstrating its continued efforts toward sustainability and environmental stewardship with the recent addition of new electric vehicle charging stations at two of its campuses. Anyone with a vehicle compatible with the station may use it and for now there is no cost to the users. Read more Pellissippi State's diverse technology programs at http://www.osti.gov/EDUconnections/ccc/pstcc. The .EDUconnections website spotlights educational institutions with connections to DOE scientific research programs.

Have you ever wanted to save all the items on a search results page but found that checking each item a cumbersome process? With Science Accelerator, you now have a quick and easy option – to 'Select all displayed'. This selects all the results on the page that you are viewing. In addition, the search and retrieval capability for one of the Science Accelerator resources, DOE R&D Accomplishments, has been enhanced to provide an improved results list. Also, sharing your search results via e-mail now offers the capability to send a comment to the recipient. Explore these new capabilities via the basic search or the advanced search.

Daniel Shechtman won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the discovery of quasicrystals." Shechtman is an associate scientist at the Department of Energy Ames Laboratory (see DOE news release), an Iowa State University professor of materials science and engineering, and the Philip Tobias Professor of Materials Science at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. He is currently at the Technion in Haifa, Israel. Read more about Shechtman at the OSTI DOE R&D Accomplishments website. DOE R&D Accomplishments is a central forum for information about significant outcomes of past DOE R&D widely recognized as remarkable advancements in science.

Saul Perlmutter, a physicist at the DOE Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and a professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae" (see DOE press release). Perlmutter shares the prize with Brian Schmidt of the Australian National University and Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science Institute. Read more about Perlmutter at the OSTI DOE R&D Accomplishments website. DOE R&D Accomplishments is a central forum for information about significant outcomes of past DOE R&D widely recognized as remarkable advancements in science.

The University of Puerto Rico provides numerous research opportunities for students, including the Mauyaquez High Energy Physics Group funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Currently this group is working in the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. Learn more about the University at the OSTI .EDUconnections website, and find related research documents.

Children ask the most probing questions about the world around them -- and they want immediate answers. Health issues pop up at inopportune times. Now you can always have an authoritative response at hand using mobile Science.gov. Anywhere, anytime, you can go to m.science.gov to get science information quickly. Read more about Science.gov, the online gateway to over 45 databases and more than 2000 selected websites from 14 federal agencies. />

Researchers funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) can now make their scientific research data easier to cite and easier to find from worldwide sources. The DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) is now registering publicly available scientific research datasets created by DOE-funded researchers through DataCite. OSTI, within the Office of Science, became a member of DataCite in January 2011 to facilitate access to DOE datasets. Through this membership, OSTI assigns permanent identifiers, known as Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), to the individual datasets to aid in citation, discovery, and retrieval. Creating stable pathways to these datasets makes the scientific process more accessible and the research more replicable for future discoveries.

OSTI Director Walter Warnick said, “This service yields easier access and identification of scientific research datasets produced by DOE-funded researchers so that they can be readily found and cited with confidence.”

When you search for green energy research information at the DOE Green Energy portal, you will now receive results that allow you to explore more narrow concepts, related concepts, or even broader concepts than your original scientific query (see press release). With its new semantic search technology, DOE Green Energy affords you the use of the familiar and simple search box -- yet still provides the benefits of an advanced search technology to help get to the information you need. In addition, the DOE Green Energy site recently deployed an auto-complete feature. This means that as you type your query, such as "ethanol," into the search box, you will immediately see a list of associated concepts, i.e., ethanol fuel, cellulosic ethanol, direct methanol fuel cell, etc. from which to choose. DOE Green Energy results come from valuable sources of DOE research and development (R&D) information. These sources include DOE databases of technical reports and patents, filtered for green energy related subjects such as solar, hydro, geothermal, and wind energy, energy storage, tidal and wave power, direct energy conversion, nuclear fuel cycle, biomass and synthetic fuels, and much more.

ASU researchers are looking to solve society's grand challenges, and the institution's research awards grew to over $347 million in 2010. You can now read about ASU research opportunities -- ­from undergraduate research to the Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative -- at the OSTI .EDUconnections website. .EDUconnections features U.S. institutions committed to supporting and advancing DOE scientific research programs. For more institutions in the .EDUconnections spotlight, visit the archive page.

The discovery of deuterium helped Harold Urey win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1934 and has been called one of the foremost achievements of modern science. His work ranged from the separation of isotopes for the development of the atomic bomb to cosmochemistry, a term he coined when his interests turned to the chemistry of the planets. Read more about this pioneering scientist at the DOE R&D Accomplishments web page, and find resources with additional information. DOE R&D Accomplishments is a central forum for information about significant outcomes of past DOE R&D widely recognized as remarkable advancements in science.

You can find scientific and technical software resulting from DOE-funded research at the Energy Science and Technology Software Center (ESTSC) website. Software packages in the collection can be used for a variety of applications, and represent the latest in Energy Department-sponsored software. In many cases, the packages are available in multiple platforms, such as PC, workstation, or supercomputer. Software is available on CD-ROM and includes supporting documentation, either in paper or electronic format. An online searchable catalog is available. The collection also contains selected software from the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Kenneth Wilson won the1982 Nobel Prize in physics "for his theory for critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions." Wilson is featured at the OSTI DOE R&D Accomplishments website. DOE R&D Accomplishments is a central forum for information about significant outcomes of past DOE R&D widely recognized as remarkable advances in science. According to The Harvard Crimson, Wilson "was part of the generation of scientists who revolutionized physics in the 1970s and confirmed the quantum theories of physicists from the early 20th century including Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein." Read about his award-winning work and find resources with additional information.

On May 26th, OSTI Director Walter Warnick and Information Program Specialist Joanna Martin visited John Burroughs Education Campus in Washington DC to participate in a "Chew and Chat with a Scientist or Engineer" National Lab Day event. They discussed career possibilities and shared insights regarding students’ personal career paths.

Connect to DOE-related research at the University of Illinois when you visit .EDUconnections. Learn about professors of interest and the institution’s exceptional students, and find remarkable innovations in research. Quick links are available at .EDUconnections to DOE grants, internships, fellowships and scholarships, and DOE-associated Nobel Laureates. An archive is available to other institutions featured in the .EDUconnections Spotlight. .EDUconnections features U.S. institutions committed to supporting and advancing DOE scientific research programs. Since 1867, the University of Illinois has been on the cutting edge of research and discovery, yielding revolutionary innovations such as the Mosaic Web browser, new plant varieties and the discovery of a third domain of life.

U.S. high schools and middle schools are now eligible to participate in the Department of Energy Energy-Related Laboratory Equipment (ERLE) program. For 32 years this program has enabled institutions of higher education to acquire hundreds of millions of dollars in high quality surplus laboratory equipment from the Department's National Laboratories. Schools may acquire equipment by reviewing the available equipment list at the DOE ERLE website and completing an electronic application form. The ERLE website is hosted by the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI).

As part of the Administration-wide Open Gov Initiative, Secretary Chu announced that the Department of Energy is contributing various tools and data sets for the National Assets program being undertaken by a group of six departments and agencies across the federal government. The DOE datasets included are hosted by the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI). OSTI develops and manages these as part of its DOE program mission. OSTI widgets and RSS feeds are also accessible through the National Assets program. According to the DOE press release, by making information from multiple agencies available in RSS and XML feeds on www.data.gov, the National Assets program will increase access to information on publicly-funded technologies that are available for license, opportunities for federal funding and partnerships, and potential private-sector partners. This information will help innovators find the information they need and receive real-time updates, which can fuel entrepreneurial momentum, create new jobs, and strengthen economic growth. The agencies include the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration in the Department of Health and Human Services; the Agricultural Research Service in the Department of Agriculture; the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the Department of Commerce; the Department of Energy; and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

To give you a window into the content of full-text research documents, OSTI has added word clouds in Information Bridge. Information Bridge provides free public access to over 200,000 full-text documents and bibliographic citations of Department of Energy research report literature. The word clouds visually represent word frequency within each document and can be viewed from the search results screen or on the bibliographic citation page when hovering over the title or the PDF icon. The top 50 terms are shown alphabetically within the word cloud. Font size is determined by the frequency of usage within the document. Depending upon the term weighting, fonts can be as much as 80 percent larger than the least used terms in the document. The colors are random. Documents in Information Bridge are primarily from 1991 forward and were produced by DOE, the DOE contractor community, and/or DOE grantees. Legacy documents are added as they become available in electronic format.

Connect to Princeton University’s DOE-related research through .EDUconnections. .EDUconnections spotlights U.S. institutions committed to supporting and advancing DOE scientific research programs. Read about Princeton professors, the institution’s exceptional students, and find Princeton Nobel Laureates associated with DOE. Quick links are available to DOE grants, internships, fellowships and scholarships. An archive is available to previous institutions featured in the .EDUconnections spotlight.

Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a technology that extracts energy from its surrounding environment, creating a perpetual power source for compact, low-power devices such as wireless sensors or radio frequency transmitters. The Thermoelectric Ambient Energy Harvester exploits naturally occurring temperature differences, producing electricity whenever it detects these differences across the device's two ends. Read about this "power puck" and find other recent inventions at DOepatents.

The findings from years of nuclear energy research supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) and predecessor agencies are being made searchable on the World Wide Web, due to a collaborative project between DOE and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). These documents have been provided by member states over the years, including more than 180,000 documents from the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI). OSTI receives frequent requests for legacy nuclear energy-related documents, according to OSTI Director Walt Warnick. "There is a misperception that all science documents are readily accessible via the web. They are not. Much science remains hard to find and retrieve as it is recorded only in paper format. Thanks to the partnership between DOE and IAEA, this situation is changing, and the research for peaceful uses of nuclear energy is becoming more accessible online. This tremendous body of knowledge is thus enjoying a renaissance of use and interest, and science progress will accelerate."

Connect to Jackson State University?s DOE-related research through .EDUconnections, OSTI?s latest tool to help university research departments and libraries get the resources they need. Check out the specialized tools and services; visit the spotlight page; find DOE grants, internships, fellowships and scholarships, and use the widget.

You can read Patent News at the DOepatents website. New research from across the DOE complex is featured, including Making Proton Therapy Compact, garnering researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory an award for excellence in technology transfer by the Federal Laboratory Consortium in 2008. A news archive is provided, as well as a free subscription service for DOepatents RSS. Publicly available patent information from DOE R&D, historic and current, can be searched at DOepatents. More information for inventors can be found at the DOE Technology Transfer website. Questions about technology transfer at DOE may be addressed to DOEtechtransfer@science.doe.gov.

The People’s Republic of China has joined the WorldWideScience Alliance­--the multilateral governance structure for the global science gateway, WorldWideScience.org. WorldWideScience.org is intended to accelerate international scientific progress by serving as a single, sophisticated point of access for diverse scientific resources and expertise from nations around the world. The addition of China is a notable milestone, as it is a major global contributor to scientific knowledge. Read the press release.

A researcher supported by the U.S. Department of Energy has been named co-winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Dr. Yoichiro Nambu of the United States half of the prize "for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics." Dr. Makoto Kobayashi and Dr. Tohihide Maskawa received a quarter of the 2008 prize "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three quarks in nature" (see DOE press release). See OSTI’s Science Showcase on Dr. Nambu and view and download Dr. Nambu’s research from OSTI R&D collections.

The Legacy Collection
Now you can get "Hot Docs" from the Geothermal Technologies Legacy Collection. These are documents that have been searched for and downloaded more than any other documents in the collection during the previous month and each preceding month. "Hot Docs" are highlighted for researchers and stakeholders who may find it valuable to learn what is of high interest to others in their field. This enhancement could serve, for instance, to push and expand research knowledge as well as opportunity for partnerships. For more information and a video about "Hot Docs", visit the Legacy Collection's About page. The Geothermal Technologies Legacy Collection is sponsored by the Geothermal Technologies Program, DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and has been developed and is maintained by OSTI.

Join the discussion! A new social networking feature, Document Discussion, has been added to the DOE Information Bridge to provide a forum for moderated, substantive commentary on important DOE research and development. Users may perform a search at the Information Bridge site and then begin a discussion or add to a discussion about any of the documents in the results list returned. Authors of the documents will be notified so that they may view and contribute to the discussion. The Information Bridge is a core OSTI product featuring approximately 190,000 fully searchable DOE technical reports. Information Bridge serves over 3 million user transactions per month.

Collaboration is paying dividends for researchers and the American public, as U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) research reports previously unavailable on the World Wide Web become digitized and readily accessible. OSTI, through its longstanding participation in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) International Nuclear Information System (INIS), has acquired 15,000 electronic DOE technical reports that were previously only available in paper or microfiche. This was part of an initiative recently launched by INIS, with IAEA funding, to digitize legacy holdings from member nations. Prior to the days in which all technical reports were created in electronic media, OSTI, the U.S. member organization to INIS, sent DOE technical reports in microfiche to INIS. Digitizing these documents affords INIS the opportunity to add this important research to the INIS database and provide the electronic files back to the member organizations for use in their own databases. Consequently, OSTI has added these electronic files to the DOE Information Bridge, increasing its size by 9 percent to nearly 190,000 reports. The Information Bridge, a core OSTI product featuring DOE scientific output, performs over 3 million user transactions per month. The OSTI/IAEA-INIS collaboration promises to yield even more digitized reports in the future, helping OSTI take important steps toward meeting the challenge of digitizing its 1 million document repository. Digitized technical reports from other nations are available through the INIS database, hosted in Vienna, Austria.

The network created by scientists for scientists continues to grow. E-print Network provides electronic access to more than 27,000 Web sites and databases worldwide containing 1.1 million e-prints in basic and applied sciences. E-prints are scientific or technical documents circulated electronically to facilitate peer exchange and scientific advancement. Included are pre-publication drafts of journal articles (preprints), scholarly papers, technical communications, or similar documents relaying research results among peer groups. E-print Network, developed and maintained by OSTI, is intended for use by scientists, engineers, and students at advanced levels.

Nobel Laureate research that helps read the instructions of life is now featured at OSTI. Roger D. Kornberg of Stanford University won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies in transcribing DNA, the storehouse of molecular information. Dr. Kornberg noted in a PBS interview, "...the DNA by itself contains nothing more than information. The DNA alone is silent. The machinery that we have investigated for the past several decades gives the DNA information voice." A significant portion of Dr. Kornberg's research leading to this prize was performed at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL), a Department of Energy (DOE)-supported research facility located at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). Related research documents and Web sites are featured at OSTI's DOE R&D Accomplishments. DOE R&D Accomplishments is a central forum for information about the outcomes of past DOE R&D.

A discovery in 1988 has yielded not only the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics, but a birthing of subsequent DOE research and patents now at OSTI. GMR, or Giant Magnetoresistance, is considered an early application in the growing field of nanotechnology. In 1988, Dr. Peter Grünberg of Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany and Dr. Albert Fert of Université Paris-Sud in France each independently discovered GMR, a physical effect in which very weak changes in magnetism generate larger changes in electrical resistance (see Office of Science press release). Dr. Grünberg's research was based in part on his work at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory. Since the GMR discovery, DOE has contributed many research papers on the topic that can be viewed at OSTI’s Science Showcase. For a more complete list of GMR research documents, visit OSTI’s Information Bridge, for more citations visit OSTI's Energy Citations Database, and for patent records visit DOepatents.

Meet Otisco, a fast-growing shrub willow that is resistant to disease and pests, hardy on a variety of sites, and can be harvested at a rapid rate for high yields of biomass – perfect for a sustainable, renewable source of energy. This novel hybridization of Salix viminalis with Salix miyabeana [319-KB PDF] was patented in September, and is on the recent inventions list at the DOepatents Database. DOepatents, developed and maintained by OSTI, is the U.S. Department of Energy's central collection of searchable patent information. The database makes available more than 20,000 historic and current patent records.

Wolfgang K. H. "Pief", Panofsky, a renowned particle physics researcher, accelerator builder, outspoken arms control advocate, and administrator of basic research, died September 25, 2007. Dr. Panofsky was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1969 and the U.S. Department of Energy's Enrico Fermi Award in 1979. A featured bibliography of Dr. Panofsky is available at OSTI's Energy Citations Database. Energy Citations Database provides free access to over two million science research citations from 1948 through the present.

On September 18, 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) commemorated its 60-year contribution to accelerating scientific discovery through the preservation and sharing of DOE R&D results. Historical exhibits and a program for retirees, former and current employees, and business and community leaders were held at the OSTI facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Dr. Jeffrey Salmon, Associate Under Secretary for Science; Dr. Eugene Garfield, Chairman Emeritus of Thomson Scientific; and Dr. Walter Warnick, OSTI Director, were speakers.U.S. Congressman Zach Wamp delivered pre-recorded video comments. During the event, the launch of DOePatents, a new website developed by OSTI, was announced. That evening OSTI co-hosted with Friends of Oak Ridge National Library a free community lecture by Dr. Garfield, a pioneer in information retrieval systems and inventor of Science Citation Index, at the American Museum of Science and Energy. As part of its 60th celebration, OSTI is participating in the Places & Spaces Mapping Science exhibit currently at the museum.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched a new Web site, DOepatents, which allows search and retrieval of information from a collection of more than 20,000 patent records. "From helping the blind to see again to identifying hidden weapons through holographic computerized imaging technology, the U.S. Department of Energy has supported and will continue to support research addressing some of the world's most pressing scientific challenges," Under Secretary for Science Dr. Raymond L. Orbach said. "Content within DOepatents represents a truly impressive demonstration of DOE research and development and technological innovation." The database represents a growing collection of patents resulting from R&D supported by DOE and demonstrates the Department's considerable contribution to scientific progress from the 1940s to the present.

(Reliable Plant Magazine) U.S. scientists say they've developed a hybrid process involving the use of a laser in friction-stir welding to extend the application to more materials... Scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory say adding a laser to the FSW process to preheat and soften the metal parts reduces wear on the tool. ...12/22

(Oak Ridger) The Oak Ridge Metrology Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex recently received a two-year renewal of its accreditation under the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program. The ORMC first earned accreditation in 1999. ...12/21 [Registration Required]

(Oak Ridger) Ellen Baldwin is an Oak Ridge mother of four children, all graduates of Oak Ridge High School. Below, she remembers back to her arrival, 16 years ago, in Oak Ridge. She describes how and why she and her husband chose Oak Ridge in which to raise their family ... The No. 1 reason we moved to Oak Ridge was because of the school system's standard of excellence. ...12/21 [Registration Required]

(Metro Pulse) Along with its educational benefits, UT's expansion plan would bring huge economic benefits to Knoxville. These start with a construction boom followed by a lot more students spending money here before ever getting to the many high-tech enterprises that may be induced to locate on the research campus. ...12/21

(Knoxville News-Sentinel) Tennessee has a U.S. senator and member of Congress on the committees that control federal spending, but the timing of that tag team arrangement is not so good. ...12/22 [Registration Required]

(Washington Post) Four U.S. Marines were charged with multiple counts of murder yesterday for their alleged roles in the deaths of two dozen civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha last year. ...12/22 [Registration Required]

(USA Today) The first talks on North Korea's nuclear program since the communist nation tested an atomic device ended Friday without an agreement to move ahead on disarmament or schedule further negotiations. ...12/22

(Physics News) Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and four universities have made the first experimental observation of rare particles of light emitted during the radioactive decay of the neutron, a key building block of matter. This work confirms theoretical predictions of this type of decay of the neutron and sets the stage for a new class of tests of basic theories in particle physics. ...12/21

It was just a simple iron wire, strung across the ceiling, that when heated by a current expanded and dropped lower. But that wire, along with a professor willing to take a different approach, confirmed in Peter Beiersdorfer's mind that experimental physics was the way to go.

It was just a simple iron wire, strung across the ceiling, that when heated by a current expanded and dropped lower. But that wire, along with a professor willing to take a different approach, confirmed in Peter Beiersdorfer's mind that experimental physics was the way to go.

"As a child my first wonder about science came about by playing with a compass needle — something invisible pulling it along a line — an invisible force at play," says Dr. Zahid Hasan, Assistant Professor of Physics at Princeton University.

The latest version of Science.gov allows more refined queries for searches of federal science databases. While Science.gov 3.0 is available to everyone, the upgrade will be especially helpful to scientists and information specialists.
"In these extraordinary times for science, the tools by which we share science information must also be extraordinary," said Dr. Raymond Orbach, Director, Office of Science. "Science progresses only if knowledge is shared and Science.gov 3.0 provides researchers with the tool to hone their queries, resulting in more precise results."

Brother Harris provided the spark and Brother Sable provided the foundation for Tony Mezzacappa's early interest in physics. "I credit my getting involved in physics to a high school physics teacher, Brother Harris of Monsignor Farrell High School on Staten Island," says Dr. Mezzacappa, Corporate Fellow and Group Leader for Theoretical Astrophysics in the Physics Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Richard R. Schrock of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Robert H. Grubbs of the California Institute of Technology were awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis".

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered where we came from and where we are going? "As it turns out, supernovae – the explosive death knoll of some types of stars – go a long way in providing us with the answers to these questions," says Dr. Peter Nugent, staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Information Bridge has a new look, and new functionalities. OSTI has added an alert feature and enhanced the Information Bridge fielded search. OSTI also added approximately 20,000 full-text reports from 1994. The Information Bridge contains documents and citations in physics, chemistry, materials, biology, environmental sciences, energy technologies, engineering, computer and information science, renewable energy, and other topics of interest related to the U.S. Department of Energy's mission.

Robert H. Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock, 2005 Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry, have been added to OSTI's Nobel Laureates Web page. The two U.S. DOE-supported researchers shared the prize with Yves Chauvin of France for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis. "On behalf of the Department of Energy, I congratulate Americans Robert H. Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock and Yves Chauvin of France for winning the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discoveries that enable industry to produce plastics and drugs more efficiently and with less hazardous waste," said Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, a trained chemical engineer. Dr. Grubbs is with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and Dr. Schrock is with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge.

OSTI has added several enhancements to the Energy Science and Technology Software Center Web site, including a searchable online listing, an automated list of new software, and an automated list of most-requested software. The Department of Energy's central software management facility, operated by OSTI, licenses and distributes federally funded scientific and technical software developed by the national laboratories, other facilities and DOE contractors. This scientific and technical software represents the latest in federal technology. In addition, the collection contains selected scientific and technical software from the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).